Striper fishing with Angel

Angel and I have been trying to get out and fish together again for a year and a half. Finally our schedules aligned AND the fishing reports were still good so we fished yesterday in very nice weather.It's been awhile since I fished for stripers personally. When I take my boys to the delta I fish very little if at all. They do all the the fishing and I run the boat. I was hoping my arms and fingers would hold out for a long day of striper fishing and they did.

We launched at 6:30am and by 7 we were at our first spot. The second cast for me produced a fat 4 pounder. My fourth cast I hooked into a fish that swam towards me immediately and I had to strip hard to keep up with him. After a short tug of war under the boat the fish appeared and it was a much bigger fish than the previous one. Turns out to be a 13 pounder and my first double digit fish in the delta on fly! Mike Costello put me onto a 9 plus pounder but we could not break double digits.

Usually when the fishing is that good so early it can be the kiss of death and that did run through my mind.

Angel ran north, then south, then north again, then WAY south. We caught fish in all but one stop. We ended the day with over 30 fish to hand. About half of them legal size.

It was wonderful to have a guy like Angel take me fishing. He knows where to fish and handles his boat well. Since he is so strong he can cast a mile too.

I used his custom made T14/T10 spliced head with the Airflo no stretch intermediate running line. What a fantastic line to cast and to fish with. I also used his flies all day. He posted pics of his flies earlier this week but they do not do them justice. They are spectacular up close in person.